"The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned." (Maya Angelou)

Wednesday, 20 May 2015

Living in a Multilingual World (The One About the Dying Languages)

I have just become
acquainted with the music of Tanya Tagac, a Canadian singer with firm roots in
Inuit culture. Her melodies – if they can be called that by western standards –
are a blend of feral intensity and heavenly lyricism. But on the whole her
songs lack words. They are made of sounds, very often of a guttural nature. Yet, I can’t stop watching
this performance of hers here and this clip from her latest album here.Tanya reminded me
of an article I read recently on the last known speakers of some of the world’s
oldest languages. I am afraid to say that I did not recognise the names Wukchumni, Kusunda and Amurdag. It
probably says more about me than about the languages themselves. Nevertheless, I
did wonder what those last speakers must have felt like. Seeing their lexicon
disappearing in a multilingual horizon, being swallowed up by the likes of English,
Mandarin and… why not? Spanish.There is a certain romanticism
of mythical proportions in being the last bastion of a cultural phenomenon,
like language in this case. Especially ancient ones in which words are much
more than carriers of meaning. As explained in the article, some languages echo
the voice of the plants, animals and objects around us, from trees to stars. That
is philological magic.Yet, linguists
reckon that by the end of the 21st century fifty percent of the
world’s languages will either disappear or remain only on hard drives and online
archives. We are talking vanishing here, not assimilation, not development, not
evolution. A language, one day, will come across a cul-de-sac. And will die. End of the story.

18 comments:

Interesting. I understand what you're saying, but no matter how much the elders of a society may try to teach their youngsters the old ways, the old languages and traditions, the more the youngsters dig in their heels. They want to be "modern" and to speak like the people around them, not like the dying language of their elders. It's true for many of the Native Americans here, too. The children want to speak English, not Cherokee, or Apache, or whatever, and to a certain degree, they associate a stigma of sorts to the old languages.

Some languages we nurture and feed and others we bury. I am ashamed to say that I do not know any of our indigenous population's languages. Not even hello or goodbye, and even the non-linguists among us can usually manage those words in several languages. And with the words we lose the culture. And experience. And diminish our worlds.

Life is competition; life is selection. This is unfortunate in many ways, but extinction at some point is the destiny of everything, it would seem. Plants, people, civilizations -- each have their time in the sun, in a manner of speaking, and then fade away into the mist of an evolutionary tunnel. Even the sun and the moon and the earth will be gone some day. So, why not languages?

That question is rhetorical, of course, but it is increasingly evident how many "varieties" of near-human or variations of human hominoids have existed in the millions of years past, and then vanished from obvious presence. And, we are learning some of us still carry a genetic footprint of some of them. So, a trace of them still exists within contemporary humankind -- and, somewhere, somehow -- maybe, too, does a trace of the many languages which have come and gone over time still linger in our speech.

Anyway, my heart sympathizes with your position, CiL, but even existing languages are constantly evolving and, no doubt, some day English and Spanish will be dead languages or will have evolved to a point where they no longer would be recognizable to someone living today. I am a fan of Old English and Middle English myself.

I admire your writing skill in this piece .... smooth, but intense .... very effective ....

From my privileged location I am seeing Hawaiian language be taught and revived, including immersion education. But the very old people who grew up with a persecuted, secret, but surviving language grumble that this new way is not the language they remember; less poetry, less mellifluous.....And of course, the ancient language of Hebrew is a living language once more. A pity the current political winds do not allow progressives to fully appreciate the amazement of the survival of the Jewish people for so long! [and the right wing merely focuses on the biblical aspects of Israel's being, and the chance to bash Muslims and Arabs]. GOSH! I do ramble here! You are SO easy to talk to!

"Neither higher nor lower, just different" - and surely that's the point. Either we treasure and celebrate our differences or we are reduced to a lowest common denominator - or probably two or three denominators - western (in thrall to America) far eastern (Chinese) and an area that we can the Misdle East and in Asia is known as West Asia. All those glorious cultures will drown - and I, for one, will grieve.

I remember studying the Inuit back when I was 11 at school and found their culture fascinating, although we didn't study their music. Tagac's music doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard before. It makes me sad thinking that cultures and languages might go extinct but posts like this one keep them alive. Thanks!

I love languages and what little linguistics I read in college was fascinating. I loved to learn that some cultures have only three adjectives to designate a color while the Inuits have about fifty that refer to snow because it is so much part of their culture. Language is a way to read, taste and express the world. Sometimes I cannot find an equivalent for a French or English word or phrase into the other language because so much would be lost in translation. Wich reminds me of the eponym film and the Japanese whisky scene in that movie.

I think it would be quite tragic if 50% of the world's languages disappeared before the end of the 21st century. And tragic that so many ancient languages have disappeared already. Just recently I was in the "Joan of Arc Chapel" (actually brought from France- supposedly Joan of Arc had prayed there) on the grounds of Marquette University in Milwaukee, and there was a stone there with words written that no one had been able to translate. Quite sad really that someone had a message to impart and no one today (at least yet) has been able to read it. I shall check out Tanya Tagac. I hope Inuit does not die. Sadly it seems like some languages like English become 'master languages' because business is conducted in them. Eventually I wonder if everyone on earth will have to speak one of the 'master languages' to survive. And eventually will the lesser languages be used less and less and then when the elders die pass into oblivion. I do hope not. I don't think any of us here will be around to see what the future brings as far as languages...we can only speculate.

Good insights. I did once study Hebrew and was amazed at how "earthy" the language was. Also, I am surprised that only 50% of the languages disappearing in the next 85 years as the computer and the connectivity bringing world closer while eliminating small language groups.

This woman's voice is incredible. Listening to her music almost feels like you're traveling through time. I agree that we lose so much when ancient languages disappear. It seems that all we have to offer are emoji.

About Me

Look well to this day for it is life,
the very best of life. In its brief course lie all the realities and truths of existence, the joy of growth, the splendour of action, the glory of power. For yesterday is but a memory and tomorrow is only a vision. But today if well-lived makes every yesterday a memory of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore to this day.
(Ancient Sanskrit Poem)